Thought Disorder in Preschool Children with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

Preschool identification of and intervention for psychiatric symptoms has the potential for lifelong benefits. However, preschool identification of thought disorder, a symptom associated with long term risk for social and cognitive dysfunction, has received little attention with previous work limited to examining preschoolers with severe emotional and behavioral dysregulation. Using story-stem methodology, 12 children with ADHD and 12 children without ADHD, ages 4.

Diminished Infant P50 Sensory Gating Predicts Increased 40-Month-Old Attention, Anxiety/Depression, and Externalizing Symptoms.

Objective: When behavioral problems resulting from attentional difficulties present, often in preschool, it is unknown whether these problems represent preexisting altered brain development or new brain changes. This study examines whether infant sensory gating of auditory evoked potentials predicts parent-reported behavior at 40 months.

Method: P50 sensory gating, an auditory evoked potential measure reflective of inhibitory processes in the brain, was measured in 50 infants around 70 days old.

Perinatal choline effects on neonatal pathophysiology related to later schizophrenia risk.

Objective: Deficient cerebral inhibition is a pathophysiological brain deficit related to poor sensory gating and attention in schizophrenia and other disorders. Cerebral inhibition develops perinatally, influenced by genetic and in utero factors. Amniotic choline activates fetal α7-nicotinic acetylcholine receptors and facilitates development of cerebral inhibition.

Assessing disordered thoughts in preschoolers with dysregulated mood.

There is rising interest in identifying precursors to bipolar disorder symptoms, including thought disorder. Thought disorder is identified in adults through self-report and in school-aged children through parent report and child story-telling. This study is an exploration to determine if preschoolers with mood dysregulation have evidence of disordered thoughts using a story-stem completion method.